#ui testing tools

[yethiconsulting]

The Role of CI/CD in Your Test Automation Strategy

Introduction

Briefly introduce the concept of Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) and its growing importance in software development.

Explain how CI/CD complements test automation tools by enabling faster and more efficient development cycles.

Understanding CI/CD

Define CI/CD: Continuous Integration focuses on merging code frequently, while Continuous Delivery ensures that code is automatically deployed to production.

Discuss how this development model relies on automated testing to ensure high-quality code at each stage.

CI/CD Pipeline and Test Automation Integration

Explain how automated tests are integrated into the CI/CD pipeline to catch issues early in the development process.

Highlight common types of tests that are automated (unit, integration, and end-to-end) at various stages of the pipeline.

Benefits of CI/CD in Test Automation

Faster feedback loops: Immediate feedback on code quality helps teams resolve issues quickly.

Improved test coverage: Automated tests are triggered on every commit, ensuring thorough test coverage.

Reduced human error: Automation minimizes manual intervention, improving reliability.

Best Practices for CI/CD and Test Automation

Recommend practices such as frequent commits, parallel execution of tests, and maintaining a reliable test suite.

Conclusion

Emphasize the pivotal role of CI/CD in driving a successful and efficient test automation strategy.

[crossdevverse]

Why SwiftUI Should Be Your First Choice for iOS Apps in 2024 | Elite Iphone Devs

Learn about the reasons why SwiftUI stands out as the premier framework for iOS app development in 2024. Compare its simplicity in design and layout, superior performance, capabilities in user interaction and animation, cross-platform compatibility, robust testing tools, anticipated future trends, strong community support, and proven real-world successes. Make an educated choice to adopt SwiftUI and streamline the development of your apps while ensuring they are future-proof.

[automationqa]

🔍✨ Stay Ahead in 2023: Discover the Top 15 Automated UI Testing Tools reshaping the testing landscape! 🚀💻

Explore the tools that bring precision and efficiency to UI testing.

[wirewitchviolet]

Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair is one of the most impressive works of pure game design I have ever seen.

Before I say anything else, I am going to be talking about a game that is VERY new and has pretty terrible search optimization, so in case this blog post somehow came up near the top of results for someone, here is the as-of-this-writing-current 1.02 release, and for good measure, here is the official FAQ page with the full version history, any future patches, and an FAQ for some of the more confusingly worded stuff that crops up later into the game. Now on with the praise-heaping!

So... Sudokuvania pretty much exactly what the name implies. It's a -vania, that is, a Metroidvania, and specifically one styled after one of the ones that's actually in the latter Castlevania series so that naming convention actually makes sense. Exploring a big castle, fighting bosses, getting various items letting you explore more areas, maybe breaking out of the borders of the map to find cool secrets here and there.

Also, it's a variant of sudoku. And I don't mean someone sat down with some videogame designing toolkit and made a videogame where some of the gameplay is solving logic puzzles on a grid you fill with numbers (I mean, I guess technically I do). I mean that link to the game I posted takes you to a website with a little built in standard app for solving sudoku puzzles and weird variations thereof, and the particular puzzle it's pointing to, somehow, manages to have a big map to explore, boss fights, special items that give you new powers, NPCs, and for good measure, fog of war. It is, again, an absolutely amazing hacky thing and I'm flabbergasted at how well executed it is. Now you're probably wondering how that even works, and that's why I'm writing this big gushy blog post. Here's what you see when you first load it up:

You're going to notice there is some absurdly small and kind of important text you can't possibly read, and that's because again, this is kind of a hacky thing this site so was not designed for. So it's kind of annoying but if you access this through the proper introduction page, it'll explain that the first thing you need to do is click the little gear icon in the floating tool palette, toggle on Visuals: Draw arrows above lines and Disable emoji replacement, then scroll all the way down to Experimental and turn on Test Large Puzzle UI. That enables you to zoom in and out with the scroll wheel, and right-click drag to pan around. It's... a little clunky because again, this website was NOT built for this, but tada, now you can zoom in, read the text, and start solving at a reasonable size. Then there's a couple gameplay concepts it does its best to explain, but... most people I've shown it to myself included needed extra explanation of a couple important early concepts. So let me just do a little color coding here to make this easier to get...

The map is not, in fact, one great big grid. It's 9 squares (and one rectangle that's not quite square over on the east side). Each of these is its own 9x9 Sudoku grid (well, the starting one is 6x6 and has those mutant 2x3 cells instead of the usual 3x3, and there's that weird eastern mutant). If you're solving stuff in one square, you completely ignore everything outside that square, except for where they overlap, in which case the numbers you're placing have to fit for both puzzles. So if we look at the light grey/green intersection on the left, those three overlap cells respectively can't be 4 6 or 5 (and whatever use you deduce in the grey box, but the pure green cells completely ignore all that, you're just focusing on the green 9x9 (which is going to have the overlap as a starting point, naturally).

The next bit that through me off a ton is the way fog of war works. Let me reasonably zoom in and do a little solving here. One second...

Here's the whole starting area all marked up to hell like you do when you're kinda bad at Sudoku and don't know how to spot a starting point. Penciling in little numbers in the corners. You'll also notice a that... most of the map is covered in this dark grey fog of war. A lot of in-game stuff mentions that you shouldn't go clicking out into the fog of war, because it'll show you names of later areas and preview certain special rules and all, but that's talking about clicking WAY off from what you can see. You are 100% allowed to solve stuff out in the fog of war, and it's pretty stingy about de-fogging. Don't go blindly guessing because then you can maybe end up sequence breaking but... yeah. Sorry I'm spoiling the Front Gate, it's basically the tutorial though. Anyway, first move is obvious, only one place we can put that 6, and suddenly...

Tada, important space so it rewarded us with a little fog clearing. You can also see that this will handily point out stuff in your pencil notes that can't be true, but only if A- it's untrue for standard sudoku reasons not special stuff, and B- it's not in the fog of war (or on the other side of some. You also maybe noticed that weird green thing under that first hint 6? That's something we need a tool for, you don't worry about it until you have that tool. Solving this out some more...

Little more de-fogging, both of the puzzle area and the margins where we're getting new information on playing the game in general. Now right here if you're observant, you'll see that bottom right corner has to be a 6. It's out in the fog of war, but you can mark it if you know what it is. And...

I was cropping it out before but the big purple number pad is always floating off to the side there, and the green text box over it, which among other things has an area name and flavor text for whatever grid you're in. This won't ALWAYS happen when you place numbers in fog of war, but there was a trigger on this 6 to load in a little piece of the first real area, and oh hey, we unlocked "Guide THERMO!" That's our first tool, and it's described up in the upper left.

So tada, from here out in addition to standard sudoku stuff, you've got these "bronze Guide THERMOs" that show up here and there and have this extra rule. You basically never get free numbers in the grid past the Front Gate, it's all slow-marching into new areas using what you're bringing in plus some easy starting examples of how your new tools work, plowing on from there. The fog of war is pretty stingy but it keeps you focused. You'll also notice the rules here mention bosses, all the 9x9 ones have one. It's clearly marked, and you should PROBABLY expose it from the fog first, but any time you're in the area really you, if you scroll around in that green text box or hit the rules button when in a grid, there's a link you can click to go fight it. The boss fights are all separate puzzles (site's good about auto-saving so don't freak out if it takes over your tab and you have to hit back after). These are very themey, sometimes VERY evil (especially boss #1, feels a bit overtuned) self-contained 9x9 puzzles, probably using the same tools their area is themed around, and I don't think there's a single pre-placed number in any of them. Beat the boss puzzle, it gives you some flavor text and a number to place in its cell back in the main castle puzzle, plug that in and you're always going to unlock something cool. Usually a new item, sometimes other weird stuff, and it just goes on like that.

Don't expect to be able to fully solve a given grid in one go. It's a Metroidvania, backtracking is expected. Even if you've fully de-fogged a grid, later stuff might reward you by straight up adding new symbols you couldn't see before or doing weird stuff with fog. It IS all solvable with pure logic... but there ARE a few places that do that thing I hate in tougher sudokus where you just kinda have to pencil in in a different faction and explore 2 possible futures for a bit to see which eventually contradicts itself. And of course the last couple of grids do some really evil mind-bendy stuff.

But yeah aside from a couple gripes where the way a tool works could maybe be a lot more grammatically clear, that first boss being a lot to deal with as you're first getting your feet wet, and a particularly cruel twist later on, I don't really have any complaints. Well, it might need a cool soundtrack. Maybe play some Castlevania music. Maybe switch it up for some real proper boss music when you're nearing victory.

Again I am just completely blown away that someone made something so meaty in a standard sudoku site's normal UI, and really managed to make it feel so much like playing a DS Castlevania. Some real proof of game design being an art form here. And now you too can just completely lose a day or two to it!

[chamiryokuroi]

I hate copilot (AI tool) so much, personally I think it makes developers lazy and worse at logical thinking.

We are working on an UI application that is mocking service call responses for local testing with the use of MSW.

There were some changes done to the service calls that would require updates on the MSW mocking, but instead of looking at the MSW documentation to figure out how to solve that, my coworker asked copilot.

Did it gave him a code that fixed the issue? Yes, but when I asked my coworker how it fixed it he had no idea because a) he doesn’t know MSW, b) he didn’t know what was the issue to begin with.

I did the MSW configuration myself, I read the documentation and I immediately knew what was needed to fix the issue but I wanted my coworker to do it himself so he would get familiarized with MSW so he could fix issues in the future, instead he used AI to solve something without actually understanding neither the issue or the solution.

And this is exactly why I refuse to use AI/Copilot.

[booty-uprooter]

some tips on how to make bosses easier if youre feeling theyre too hard:

play a ranged physical dps class. that way you can hang back to keep an eye on the arena and what the boss is doing without having to worry about needing to stand still long enough to complete an induction

on that note, inductions are considered finished before the bar is full. you can usually move right before it fills and still have it go off, but it takes some trial and error to figure out how close you can cut it

move your ui around. my own life was made immeasurably easier when i put the target right above my hotbar so i wouldnt have to pay attention to both the top and bottom of the screen at the same time, but try stuff out and see what works best for you

the best time to mitigate an attack is right before the boss finishes casting it. the second best time is as soon as the mit becomes available, every time it becomes available

use addle and feint. you almost never see these used in casual content and it's a waste because they really are extremely useful skills at any level

use arm's length and surecast. there are some knockbacks they dont work on but those are rare. if you know youre gonna get pushed, use these and you probably won't get pushed

take advantage of duty support. the npcs know the mechanics. watch them and let them teach you

particle effects cant hurt you (usually). with the exception of puddles that stay on the ground for a while or layered stacks like akh morn, as long as youre not standing on the marker when it disappears (or are if it's a stack), you're in the clear. feel free to move through the animation if necessary. more and more mechanics require you to do so to be in position for the next one in time

it's usually fine to let spread markers overlap. just, yknow, make sure another person isnt in yours (though its the responsibility of anyone without a spread to keep themselves out of harms way)

when in doubt, ask your party members. it's extremely rare to match with a group of randos and have everyone be a first-timer. most players are happy to help, and the ones that know the mechanics but are bad at explaining them will usually just stick a marker on themselves (usually a triangle) for you to follow

read your tool tips. boss fights are as much a test of how well you know your class as they are your ability to read and react to mechanics. unless youre playing a healer or paladin, youre going to use your entire kit, so make sure you know what everything does

on that note, freecure is a scam. once you get cure ii/benefic ii, you will never need cure or benefic again. keep them on your hotbar for when you get synced content if you wish, but otherwise you do not need them. do not use them

if you play multiple classes, try to keep skills that do the same/similar things at the same spot on your hotbar. this isn't always possible bc despite what some may claim, not all classes of the same type are actually identical, but it will save you a lot of headaches

entirely new and unique mechanics are rare to the point of being nigh nonexistent. everything is a remix of something else and practicing in lower level content can actually be a big help

look up guides. the internet is full of them in pretty much whatever form works best for you (though they can be of admittedly variable quality)

turn down party effects. theyre on one of the tabs under character configuration > controls. if you put them on minimum you can still see heals and such but you wont have your screen constantly full of explosions

turn on target health percentage. this one is under character configuration > ui. it lets you better see how close the boss is to going down

make summons smaller. we all love titan's ass but not when it's the only thing you can see. "/petsize all small" will make this problem go away

relax and have fun. panicking leads to mistakes, which can lead to worse mistakes. if you need to take a second to breathe, do so. your party members probably wont mind waiting a minute or two between pulls

[t52b]

Heart Toy

So i have made a cardiophile desk toy it is basically a heart and lots of tools to try out its still in development but "ripe enough" for testing PC download link https://drive.google.com/file/d/16mYW14jE-_wDHaKGD7lbx-XWahkhknFk/view?usp=sharing Android Port(known bug/missing feature is zoom on the heart model and resetting its rotation also help text is small, everything else works): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZFlX6oupE8VGhJb7cNKQCUIh2M7GmM6s/view?usp=sharing here its free you just download it unzip it and hopefully it should run run the MyProject.exe

smart screen will whine at it as its an unrecognized manufacturer (me)

but under "more information,"you can find the "run anyways" option

I know it needs tome UI TLC ,but I eagerly await feedback or ideas in DM s

[sourlemonsimblr]

A small but very useful tutorial

written with the help of chatGPT

Why Use Upscayl?

Upscayl is a great tool for improving textures and reference images. Whether you are working on character skins, environmental textures, or UI elements, this program helps to:

Increase image resolution without losing quality

Reduce pixelation and enhance details

Improve the clarity of textures for a more realistic look

How I Use Upscayl (look at the photo)

Finding or Creating a Reference Image I start with an image that I want to enhance. This could be a low-resolution texture or a reference image for a new design.

Adding Noise for Testing To demonstrate how Upscayl improves images, I intentionally added noise to a mask texture. This allows me to compare the before and after results more clearly.

Processing the Image in Upscayl I import the noisy texture into Upscayl and choose an appropriate AI model. The program processes the image, enhancing its details and removing unwanted noise.

Examining the Results After running the texture through Upscayl, the difference is clear: the texture appears sharper, more detailed, and free of noise, making it more suitable for in-game use.

Enhancing Existing Game Textures

Apart from improving references, Upscayl is also useful for enhancing in-game textures, such as character skins. If a skin looks too blurry or low-resolution, running it through Upscayl can significantly improve its appearance without having to manually repaint details.

[dalishious]

Gaming GIF Tutorial (2025)

Here is my current GIF making process from video game captures!

PART 1: Capturing Video

The best tip I can give you when it comes to capturing video from your games, is to invest in an injectable photomode tools - I personally use Otis_Inf's cameras because they are easy to use and run smoothly. With these tools, you can not only toggle the UI, but also pause cutscenes and manually change the camera. They are great for both screenshots and video recording!

As for the recording part, I personally prefer NVIDIA's built-in recording tools, but OBS also works well in my experience when NVIDIA is being fussy.

PART 2: Image Conversion

Do yourself a huge favour and download PotPlayer. It is superior to VLC in more ways than one in my opinion, but is especially helpful for its Consecutive Image Capturer tool.

Open the video recording in PotPlayer, and use CTRL + G to open the tool. If this is your first time, be sure to set up a folder for your image captures before anything else! Here are the settings I use, albeit the "Every # frame" I change from time to time:

When you're ready, hit the "Start" button, then play the part of the video you want to turn into a GIF. When you're done, pause the video, and hit the "Stop" button. You can then check the images captured in your specified storage folder.

(TIP: Start the video a few seconds a head and stop a few seconds after the part you want to make into a GIF, then manually delete the extra images if necessary. This will reduce the chance of any unwanted cut-offs if there is any lagging.)

PART 3: Image Setup

Now, this part I personally always do in GIMP, because I find its "Open as Layers" and image resizing options 100% better and easier to use than Photoshop. But you don't have to use GIMP, you can do this part in Photoshop as well if you prefer.

Open the images each as an individual layer. Then, crop and/or scale to no more than 540px wide if you're uploading to Tumblr.

(TIP: This might just be a picky thing on my end, but I like to also make sure the height is a multiple of 10. I get clean results this way, so I stick to it.)

If you use GIMP for this part, export the file as .psd when done.

PART 4: Sharpening

If you use GIMP first, now it's time to open the file in Photoshop.

The very first thing I always do is sharpen the image using the "Smart Sharpen" filter. Because we downsized the image, the Smart Sharpen will help it look more crisp and naturally sized. These are the settings I mostly use, though sometimes I change the Amount to 200 if it's a little too crunchy:

Here's a comparison between before and after sharpening:

Repeat the Smart Sharpen filter for ALL the layers!

PART 5: Timeline

First, if your timeline isn't visible, turn it on by click on Windows > Timeline. Then, change the mode from video to frame:

Click "Create Frame Animation" with the very bottom layer selected. Then, click on the menu icon on the far-right of the Timeline, and click "Make Frames from Layers" to add the rest of the frames.

Make sure the delay should be 0 seconds between frames for the smoothest animation, and make sure that the looping is set to forever so that the GIF doesn't stop.

Part 5: Editing

Now that the GIF is set up, this is the part where you can add make edits to the colours, brightness/contrast, add text, etc. as overlays that will affect all the layers below it.

Click on the very top layer so that it is the one highlighted. (Not in the timeline, in the layers box; keep Frame 1 highlighted in the timeline!)

For this example, I'm just going to adjust the levels a bit, but you can experiment with all kinds of fun effects with time and patience. Try a gradient mask, for example!

To test your GIF with the applied effects, hit the Play button in the Timeline. Just remember to always stop at Frame 1 again before you make changes, because otherwise you may run into trouble where the changes are only applied to certain frames. This is also why it's important to always place your adjustment layers at the very top!

Part 6: Exporting

When exporting your GIF with plans to post to Tumblr, I strongly recommend doing all you can to keep the image size below 5mb. Otherwise, it will be compressed to hell and back. If it's over 5mb, try deleting some frames, increasing the black parts, or you can reduce to number of colours in the settings we're about to cover below. Or, you can use EZGIF's optimization tools afterwards to reduce it while keeping better quality than what Tumblr will do to it.

Click on File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy). Here are the settings I always use:

This GIF example is under 5mb, yay! So we don't need to fiddle with anything, we can just save it as is.

I hope this tutorial has offered you some insight and encouragement into making your own GIFs! If you found it helpful, please reblog!

[patricia-taxxon]

ok. i cheated, i needed to be told that i was already on the right track. now both outer wilds and void stranger have had a moment where i basically had all the information but the riddle just missed its opportunity to land, creating complete destructive interference with no way of pushing through, because the game had already told me all of its clues and it's not like I could just put the pieces together in a different way. details/spoilers below

so my only lead was the murals, and how they were the same dimension as the brand I was asked to draw at the beginning. I also noticed the suspiciously easy brand-sized rooms, but didn't know what to do with them. zone 5 is actually where i realized that i could form the brand with the tiles after I realized it had the same quantity of tiles as the indents on the mural with one space left over for the stairs. So I made it, after a lot of effort, and continued down. Nothing happened. Now, i really think this was a reasonable assumption to make, that the stairs didn't count, but since nothing happened, I assumed I'd done something wrong. There were two possibilities, either I needed to keep one of the white tiles in my inventory and use the stairs as one of the pixels, OR, since this game has often been cagey about how it works, i needed to repair every mural in one run and it's just not telling me. I had the opportunity to test this on the next 6x6 room, which I noticed was also mostly glass, so I assumed that I shouldn't discriminate between types of tiles and used the stairs as one of the pixels. Still nothing. Okay, so this had to be one of those special constrained runs that people keep telling me about, I need to fix all the murals in one run. Except the eighth mural is blocked off. Okay, nevermind, there was no lead, game over. I was completely out of tools to determine if there was anything to be discovered.

So if you've played the game, you'll know my mistake was not listening to Gor. When Gor told me "when the path to damnation rests within you, place your faith and embrace the void" she actually meant, pick the stairs up with your scepter after you've already marked the brand and then jump in a pit. I assumed "the path to damnation rests within you" meant eating the fruit that demon gives you and getting the bad ending, because the things you pick up with the staff aren't resting within you, the UI shows them resting on the staff. I'd already been directed by the game to just shut the door on this whole brand lead because I'd been punished so thoroughly and I was never going to connect Gor's incantation to it. They just missed the opportunity for me to solve this riddle authentically. the game meticulously shut the door for me.

[yethiconsulting]

Why UI Automation is Essential for Delivering Flawless User Experiences

Introduction:

In today's fast-paced digital world, user experience (UX) is the cornerstone of successful applications. A seamless, error-free interface keeps users engaged, while bugs and poor performance drive them away. This is where UI automation plays a vital role in ensuring a flawless user experience.

Reducing Human Error:

Manual testing is prone to errors and can miss critical issues, especially during repetitive tasks. UI automation eliminates human error, ensuring that every element, from buttons to workflows, is thoroughly and consistently tested.

Accelerating Testing Cycles:

UI automation allows teams to run tests rapidly and frequently. Continuous testing ensures that bugs are caught early, reducing the risk of faulty features reaching production. This helps maintain a high-quality user experience across frequent releases.

Enhancing Test Coverage:

Automated UI tests can simulate diverse user interactions across various platforms, devices, and screen sizes. This expanded coverage guarantees that all user scenarios are tested, minimizing the likelihood of bugs in different environments.

Improving Consistency:

Automation ensures consistent execution of test cases, leaving no room for variation in results. This leads to more reliable and predictable outcomes, helping teams deliver a smooth and flawless user experience every time.

Conclusion:

UI automation is key to delivering an impeccable user experience, ensuring applications are bug-free, fast, and functional across all platforms.

This framework emphasizes the direct impact of UI automation on user experience, enhancing the blog's relevance and value.

[factual-fantasy]

I've just finished reading your response for the first time,

First off, thank you very much for the GIF and Video, as well as the explanations. I can definitely work with this.

I've downloaded and installed FireAlpaca for myself so I can start comparing what I'm seeing vs what is supposed to happen.

Immediately, Something stood out as weird to me: You're selecting multiple tools at once. That's... not supposed to happen. I tried it myself, Opened like 20 tabs and just started throwing colours at each canvas. This doesn't happen for me At all.

So I'm gonna give you some more instructions. (Tl:Dr for the instructions at the bottom, just above my little rant)

Backing Up your Brushes

FIRST let's make sure you don't lose all of your beloved brushes. from what I'm about to suggest.

in FA, I want you to go to Help > Open Config Folder

That will lead to a folder that, for me, looks like this

Keep in mind that it could look different for you, I have a fresh install with no cool special brushes. (also I can't draw to save my life)

Now simply Ctrl+A (select all) and copy it to another folder. go to like... Documents or Downloads or something, Make a folder called "Brushes Backup" and Paste all of it in there.

Alright, now to the actual thing I want you to do.

2. and 3. Uninstall and Reinstall FireAlpaca

There is some weird glitch I cannot Reproduce. So Just Reinstall FireAlpaca. this is the reason I wanted you to back up your brushes. Deleting the program and reinstalling will nuke all of the settings you use, so by copying the Config folder, you can easily reinstate your settings.

4. Testing

After you have reinstalled the program, I want you to open it, and mess around for however long you think it will take to trigger the glitch. (which sounded like only a few minutes) and see if something happens.

If not: Great!

If yes: You might want to reach out to https://firealpaca.com/report/ and fill out a bug report, and tell them that you have no way of reproducing the bug. (although I really think reinstalling will work)

5. Reinstating your brushes

Now, after you've made sure that FireAlpaca works, only then do I want you to Open the config folder again and put your brushes back. (simply close FireAlpaca after you've opened the folder, delete everything that's in it, and then copy everything from your "Backup Folder" into the config folder. )

6. Testing Part 2: Electric boogaloo

Then if you re-open FireAlpaca I want you to once again mess around a little and pay attention. Because the Bug might come back.

If it DOES come back, It might be one of your settings/brushes that is causing it. Which in that case I unfortunately have to suggest starting over with your brushes.

To recap: I'm asking you to:

Back up your brushes

Uninstall FireAlpaca

Reinstall FireAlpaca

Test to see if the weirdness is gone

Restore your brushes

Test to see if the weirdness is still gone

--- Rant Below ---

I have no clue what's happening to your program. This looks like some bug in the code that just causes FA to say "Nope" and stop responding to the side bar.

This acutally reminds me of a bug I've been encountering in Unity where the program refuses to open one of the UI pages in the Program's settings, which just completely shuts me out of the settings for one of the input libraries. Funnily enough it actually printed an error in my console, and the error was thrown so incredibly deep into compiled code that I was pretty sure I was reading Unity Source Code at that point.

I still don't know what's happening. Luckily I have Other People to interact with that settings page for me.

(This ask is in response to this post)

So once again I took sometime to test all this out, but unfortunately it didn't take me very long to come back with bad news.

So this is exactly what I did in this order:

I went to my config folder and copied everything into a new folder I created in my Documents tab. Then I went to my settings > apps > FireAlpaca and uninstalled. I then went to the official website and reinstalled it.

I opened up what should have been a fresh FireAlpaca and found this,

The red numbers are brushes that I have adjusted/used. And the "Fire roller (multiple colors)" and "twisted ribbon" are brushes that didn't come with FireAlpaca by default. I downloaded them afterwards from their little brush shop. For some reason FireAplaca remembered my brushes..

And of course, FireAlpaca was still breaking in the way that I've described in your last ask.

So I thought "Okay, I don't care if I lose my brushes and settings. I just want FireAlpaca to work." So I deleted that copied folder from Documents that I made, I unpinned FireAlpaca from my taskbar and deleted the desktop shortcut too just to he extra safe I guess..? Then I went to settings > apps > FireAlpaca and hit uninstall. Then went back to the website, reinstalled the latest version and wouldn't you know it,

All the exact same brushes, in the same order with the same settings. And FireAlpaca continued to break the same way.

So now I'm wondering if I did something wrong.. why does FireAlpaca keep remembering my settings? Did I do the uninstall process wrong? I wondered if that cache thing might be holding data or something? I've heard about that before. But with the help of a friend recently I cleared my Google Chrome and Laptop's caches. And FireAplaca didn't change at all and I didn't lose any of my settings. So that cant help me here..

I wonder if somehow my pen could be a problem? I've dropped it on the hard floor 100s of times. Could it be contributing? And what did I do wrong in this process for FireAlpaca to remember all my brush settings?

If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it <:(( Please and thank you very much 🙏🙏🙏

[sims4studioofficial]

Studio Star (Windows) & Aurora (Mac) update

Both versions include:

Build category filter in the Objects section containing doors, windows, and other items

Object dirt overlays on the Studio tab,

Support for pool, fountain, roof, exterior, half wall, and deco trims

Batch fix "Disallow CC shoes for barefoot" that replaces the disallow for towel and stops Sims from wearing custom shoes when stomping grapes or other actions that should be performed barefoot

A submenu in the batch fix section including all allow and disallow batch fixes

Batch fix to disallow for werewolves

Batch fix to disallow for all occult entities at once

Updated disallow for random to prevent aging up sims using items that were disallowed for random

A new "Browse Game Content" selection in the Tools menu that replaces the Windows Object and CAS preview cheats and introduces this functionality to Mac. The content browser also includes Build items.

Aurora (Mac) also has a new corner tab in the Wall editor

Star (Windows) also has numerous UI updates and improvements

Both versions also include many bug fixes addressing reported issues.

Important note about batch fixes: The new versions contain new and updated batch fixes. These have been tested, but it isn't possible to test them on every CC item that's been created. Please remember to check your batch fixed items in the game and only delete the batch fix backup file once you're confident the batch fix worked as intended. If you identify problems with batch fixed items, you can restore the original items using the backup. If you notice problems with a batch fix please let us know so the issue can be addressed.

As always, thank you to everyone who has made suggestions for new features and/or reported bugs. Your contributions are vital to Studio's ongoing improvement!

Choose your version to download HERE. Changelogs for Star and Aurora are in their respective download threads.

[pawborough]

Beta Expectations and Our Development Goals

Hi everyone! This document serves as an outline for starting expectations when beginning Closed Beta. 

Things to remember as we move into Closed Beta are: 

Cursing is allowed! We’ve dialed back our filters quite a bit, but absolutely no innuendo or sexual content. Details are outlined in our TOS.

In this beginning, the application feels closer to the Alpha state than it does the full game. It is in a mid-development limbo, which is why we are stressing that it is the Closed Beta state. Our biggest milestones have been backend technical foundations that have taken significant time. If the game were a cake, we have finished baking the base, which is what we’re starting the testing for. We’ll be making aggressive updates throughout the next few months of the test, which will introduce the “frosting,” and advance general playability. We plan to roll out new mechanics every month. You will find a list below of what these goals are.

Temper your starting expectations, but get excited for how much we’re going to continuously develop and update!

We will not be moving into Open Beta until we feel the game is close to done. Think of Closed Beta as phase 1, and Open Beta as phase 2.

Things will break the moment you try them. This is normal and expected. Always report!

Because of this, things won’t be very fun yet. But as we roll out improvements and new things, users will get to give live feedback on what they want to see and how things feel.

Early Access will be less smooth than full Closed Beta as we detect the kinks of letting more people in en masse. It’s the nature of early launching. Brace yourselves!

In the same vein, several aspects are temporary. Topher takes the place of icons in the queue, and compromises we’ve made for early economic simulation (example: a placeholder merchant to simulate the Processing mechanic) will be barren. NPCs are sketches, UI colors may be temporary, and UI banners are sketches.

Any and all prices of items or features are temporary or subject to change. Things like the price of kit rolling or accessory items will be tooled.

All updates and communications with testers will be posted publicly instead of through email. Eventually, we’ll use the site forums, but not until we can guarantee no more content wipes, and we’ve developed the sticky system on the User Dashboard.

Everything in this test, minus your username, password, account ID, and purchases is temporary. Your account content will be erased at some point in time, and when it is your Kickstarter and Alpha reward codes will be re-activated for use.

If anything is broken about your code, please report! We’ll fix it!

Any premium purchases you make will be restored upon wipes, and exist in this state as a means to support us moreso than to stimulate longterm collecting. By purchasing any currency, you’re helping us develop! But please do not feel pressured!

Bundles will be added come the full Closed Beta.

Pelt submissions are open for user testing, but you’ll have to re-submit upon any wipes.

When you complete registration (entering your DOB and confirming agreement to the TOS), your founder and follower IDs will be reserved, so you can take your time going over the details.

These starting cats will be wiped completely, and when Open Beta begins, follower and founder IDs will be totally up for grabs again upon first-come first-serve login and confirmation.

We’ll be around to grind for the next two weeks. Then, in two weeks, there will be a bit of a lull as our developers take a breather and regroup, and we’ll be back in March. We’re making this plan known so it doesn’t look like an abandonment or nervous silence. We’re simply planning rest and pacing ahead of time!

We’ll be sending out periodic surveys to get honest criticism and check how the economy is feeling.

The first survey is ready and waiting for your input! This survey focuses specifically on the economy, and can be filled out once per day. Please do not feel pressured to do so every day, but we encourage you to respond as many times as possible. Your input is immeasurably valuable for the fine-tuning of our economy, and guaranteeing the long-term enjoyability of the site. Please find the survey here.

With over 700 items on this site, we may have missed necessary data entry for some as we learn the ins and outs of our own program. Always report and we’ll fix it!

Some accessories are in the re-coloring queue, and if so will have their recolors seeded into the economy as we finish them.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’re ready to hit the ground running, but it will be a long journey. We’re excited to embark on it together!

Here is a list of things available from the get-go (hopefully useable, if not they will be!):

Cooking and Crafting

Daily Duties

Flea Market and Merchants 

Breeding

Dress up and general cat customization

Beta retirement (bare bones)

Cat relationships and cross-cat gift giving

Archetype discovery (we are adding new ones as you play!)

Forum posting and custom board creation (image hosting!)

Cat profile CSS boxes

User profile CSS boxes

Storage and stash functionality for item organization

Bank functionality for currency storage

User customization settings (icon selection, pronoun and slogan editing, Borough swapping, username swapping)

Crest application

Beta guild play (basic errands)

Multiplayer guilds

Incense and metamorphic functionality

Pelt submissions (the refined pelt rules are a work in progress, because for this chaotic testing phase we’d like everyone to go nuts and have some fun! The only steadfast rules are no gore, copyrighted materials, religious iconography, or sexual content!)

Friend requests and adding friends

Premium shop (intended for user support, benefits are bare for at least the next week or so while we focus on user bug reports)

Now without further ado… here is what we’ll be working on in the coming months, in order of general priority! Open Beta will not happen until we finish this list.

Replacing frontend assets with final renders.

Updating item cards to reflect dynamic button displays depending on the page in which the card is being viewed.

User report system for all user-ran content.

Wardrobe functionality; full sandbox dress up available to any visitor.

Infrastructure for sharing sandbox creations in comments and forum posts; text language like :catID: to paste an image link of a cat.

User to user DM functionality.

User to user private trading.

Item database and lore encyclopedia.

Processing functionality + dye system. For now, recolors are seeded in a temporary merchant.

Visual faunapedia record for fauna studying (including unlockable lore.)

Adding a slew of archetypes. Dedicated archetype collection page with user featured display.

Sitewide search functionality of all user content.

Aesthetic updates to comments + addition of comments onto cat pages.

Splitting the Undercoat into two patterns: Dilute (dynamically lightened) and Standard.

Adding a white patch selector into the creator and founder designer.

Dashboard refinement + forum news widget and stickies.

Splitting cooking and crafting to bring back Winnipeg and keep the mechanics more organized.

Farming.

Much of it has been started already, and we’ll continue to share our progress. We plan to stay in Closed Beta likely over the summer, but it will be as long as these developments take.

And then we will move into Open Beta! Where we can focus on the following:

User notebook entries (blog posts.)

Forum board updates to better accommodate posting

Sitewide tagging and filtering.

Cross-account breeding.

Dedicated Guild refinement and updates.

Achievement system.

Referral system.

Team features like a team hoard, team notes, and shared scenes.

Refinement of any feature feedback we get :) 

And from there… it’s full launch, baby! 

Again, a marathon, not a sprint. This list may seem long and arduous, but we’ll continue visual content updates (patterns, breeds, etc.) throughout the length of development.

Let’s get crackin’, catfolk!

[liri-sims]

Download at SFS or Box.

This is a default replacement for all the conversation icons: the basegame interests, the Freetime hobbies, the "tell story about" interaction that came in Apartment Life, and the pet interests that will sometimes turn up in a pet's dreams or thought bubbles. That extends to the UI elements, where the sim's level of interest in a subject or enthusiasm for a hobby is displayed.

I made this for my Test of Time challenge, because every speech replacement I could find was way too modern for my Stone Age hunter-gatherers.

My sample shots were taken against both Eddysims' high-res speech bubbles and Simborg's TSM speech bubbles, so you can see how they look against both. This was absolutely a deliberate choice and not just that I decided to switch my default in the middle but didn't want to scrap the screencaps.

As you can see above in the crabby toddler shot, I also default-replaced the motives, because I was tired of seeing the same "TOILET!" or "BED!" thought bubbles in the stone age as I'd seen in Pleasantview. A sim who's too hot will think about wanting a cool breeze, not an iced beverage; a sim who's on the verge of bladder failure (or wetting their diaper) will think about relieving themselves in a shrub; a sim in hygiene desperation will think about washing off in a waterfall, because of Marvine's waterfall shower. (If you see the manure pile, they want the place cleaned up.) This is a separate folder from the speech defaults, so you can choose if you want that or not.

This isn't perfect - some icons have some compression/color bleeding that I can't seem to get rid of, and the fuzziness of the era and setting (I don't call it the "Neanderthal" era but that is the official name) means that there are some anachronisms and inconsistencies baked in - the next stage is the Roman Empire, so any New World vegetation or animals shouldn't be there, but they're in a tropical setting, but if there are strays in the neighborhood they have domesticated cats and dogs, which Neanderthals wouldn't... My seven-year-old daughter, in fact, pointed this out and refused to let me have domestic cats and dogs in the children's speech pool. Kids talk about wolves and leopards instead:

The other samples of basegame interest discussion:

In my game, I have Almighty Hat's alien abduction mod, and Plantsims, so the discussion of elves and dryads fits right in. Instead of school or work, sims will discuss important survival skills and cultural knowledge: hunting, fishing, weaving, making tools and preserving food. And so on. It may not suit everyone's game perfectly, but it's better for mine than anything else I could find.

Credit and acknowledgments: The icons used here came from a variety of artists via Freepik and Flaticon. The Puppet Characters collection, Max.Icons, Monkik, and Eucalyp all got heavy use. I also got some from UltimateArm, though I'm having a hard time finding a link to their page specifically.

Without Sims in Low Space, this default wouldn't exist - it was from her novel default that I got the idea to use Flaticon as a source. I also referred heavily to other speech defaults, including Keoni's modern one, and the medieval replacements by ClstlDrmr83 and rugrat0ne.

And if you read all this, you may not want to scroll back up, so here are the download links again:

Download at SFS or Box.

Everything is compressorized and clearly labeled so you can delete any parts you don't want. Let me know if you use this, or if you run into any problems!